Best Track on Roxy Music's "Siren"

Anyone else up in this bitch gonna represent for Nightingale?

I used to dislike "She Sells"; now I love it and every track here, even if itsn't my favorite Roxy.

My vote: "Just Another High," which kills me.

Just Another High seconded, soundtrack for several youthful breakups.

Oh please. Could it really be anything other than "Love Is The Drug"?

I don't think so.

I do a killer karaoke version of "Love is the Drug."

Me too!

"LitD" is a mighty tune, but "Just Another High" is fukking wrenching. Great structure, great beat from Paul "Blooter Blatter"* Thompson, and cutting insight into a part of the reptilian male psyche…

therefore, it gets my vote…

*apparently, the other dudes in the band called Thompson that due to his relentless time-keeping, i.e. "blooter-BLATTER blooter-BLATTER blooter-BLATTER blooter-BLATTER" etc etc

She Sells.

Both Ends Burning

"Just Another High." The keys at the opening just kill, and the hilarious lyrics on the fade ice it, though Manzanera's work on "Both Ends Burning" and the genius second line of each verse in "End of the Line" keep things close.

I do a killer karaoke version of "Love is the Drug."

-- Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Tuesday, August 14, 2007 2:05 PM (1 hour ago)

Me too!

-- Spencer Chow, Tuesday, August 14, 2007 2:15 PM (57 minutes ago)

It galls me that "Love is the Drug" and "Virginia Plain" are the only Roxy Music songs ever available in any US karaoke setting. This was, of course, my single biggest gripe with LOST IN TRANSLATION...

Spencer, I'm officiclaly calling you out for the next LA karaokefap :-)

available in any US karaoke setting... my single biggest gripe with LOST IN TRANSLATION

They were in Tokyo.

If "She Sells" only consisted of the last 45 seconds of "She Sells," it would still get my vote!

By 45 seconds, I mean 76 seconds.

"Both Ends Burning". The first New Romantics track ever. Duran Duran, Spandau Ballet, Ultravox and Simple Minds starts here.

Sure, Geir -- but it's no "She Sells." Best drum performance in rock history. MARK IT DOWN!

They were in Tokyo.

Right. That's why I said "US" - my gripe isn't that it's inaccurate, my gripe that they teased me with it!

Hey Geir, we agree! The galloping rhythm section and the BEAUTIFUL icy synth(?) strings are truly transplendent!

Those icy synth strings were so much part of the sound of the early 80s in the UK. And I love it each time around. So that song only for that.

The best songs have enormous variations in tempo, beat and dynamics. Which makes, for instance, "Supper's Ready" useless for dancing.

Sorry wrong thread

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Sentimental Fool 0

Strange.

I put this on today, first time in over a decade. What a great album, probably my favorite of theirs.

It took me a long time to come around to this album in its entirety. First version of this that I owned was the cassette which swapped "Whirlwind" and "Just Another High" in the running order, making for a strong first side but bogging down the second by ending with the two most uninspired tracks imo placed together.

I love "Whirlwind", the last of Manzanera's manic rockers (unless "Still Falls the Rain" counts), but it's a totally inappropriate album closer.

I also agree that "Nightingale" is probably the least good track, it seems Ferry didn't know what tone to strike in setting this lyric. This and Avalon are probably the only Roxy records where the Mackay co-writes are as good as Manzanera's.

"Just Another High" is the closer?

Not on the cassette that visiting describes.

I misunderstood their post. "Nightingale" has an oboe solo and the "Should I stay here?" section in the plus column.

This is the classic album that blew me away this year. I had it as mp3s on an old ipod but it never clicked with me outside the first two tracks. I got it on vinyl in the Fall and love it.

I would probably go Just Another High, an excellent, epic closer I had stuck in my head for weeks.

Just Another High, best ever Roxy song imo

i got avalon on vinyl last week which is what inspired my listens. only local record store is closing ☹️ and i didn't know about it until now.

Siren is among my favorite albums of all time, but I felt like I was in danger of overplaying it so I have not listened to it start to finish in over 20 years. Time to revisit.

xp

Same! After being floored by Siren, I went into a record store in SF and picked up that, plus S/T, Standed, and Country Life all at once. Might have been a slight mistake as it's hard to keep them all separated listening to them all at once, so Avalon is the one that has stood out the most for obvious reasons.

I will never understand Trouser Press’s dismissal of this record:

Reuniting with Chris Thomas, Roxy made the disappointingly dull Siren (with Jerry Hall crawling on the cover), closing the studio book on their first era. The record contains some great tracks (“Love Is the Drug,” “Both Ends Burning,” “Sentimental Fool”), but an overabundance of forgettable numbers substantially diminishes its value.

I Know Ira Robbins is American, but for years the consensus was: UK critics dismissed it, while American critics Finally Understood Roxy.

First time I read about Roxy as a teen was the Spin Alternative Record Guide where they rated Siren as their best album.

I think they'd gone out of fashion with UK rock critics by the time "Siren" was released. There was definitely a lot of mockery of Bryan Ferry's pretensions in the UK music press later on.

For sure. We're firmly in the Byron Ferrari era UK press-wise by the time you hit Country Life and Siren.

Also, zero votes for Sentimental Fool and End of the Line is absolutely criminal.

I was not wowed by Siren when I got it as a kid as my first Roxy exposure, I was expecting something more like Ziggy Stardust. But now that I'm familiar with the whole catalog, I love the first five equally. Those first five records really are more effective to me on vinyl (I got to really know them in the mp3 era) and indeed blended together if I shuffled files too much. The flow of each side is important, and I dunno what it is about the vinyl mastering that improves it -- they aint a "warm" band -- but it does feel more alien and dreamy and sexy on LP.

On the other hand, I think of Avalon as one of those made-for-CD records, though I got it before I had a CD player, and I liked it much more than Siren as my second exposure.

Might have been a slight mistake as it's hard to keep them all separated listening to them all at once

When I bought Country Life after having been obsessed with Stranded, I regarded it as an inferior copy of the previous record. There are a couple of pretty blatant re-writes:

Just Like You > A Really Good Time
A Song for Europe > Bitter-Sweet

plus the sound on Country Life is pretty mushy, and "All I Want is You" is their least inspiring single. On the other hand, "Out of the Blue" might be their all-time best.

zero votes for Sentimental Fool and End of the Line

Both great songs. Can anyone with more context tell me what mid-70s country fans would have made of "End of the Line" if they'd heard it? Laughable, infuriating, passable, credible?

It's not country, it's country-adjacent.

_Might have been a slight mistake as it's hard to keep them all separated listening to them all at once_


When I bought _Country Life_ after having been obsessed with _Stranded_, I regarded it as an inferior copy of the previous record. There are a couple of pretty blatant re-writes:

Just Like You > A Really Good Time
A Song for Europe > Bitter-Sweet

plus the sound on _Country Life_ is pretty mushy, and "All I Want is You" is their least inspiring single. On the other hand, "Out of the Blue" might be their all-time best

"All I Want is You" is a perfect single.

OTM

and I'll go as far as saying "All I want is you" is a superior rewrite of "Editions of You," a song every Roxy person likes except me.

The below is magic to me…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1YdGj3amiDc

“A Really Good Time” described as a rewrite of “Just Like You,”

The cassette version compounds this association by having ARGT second in the tracklist.

Is that video where they got the image for Street Life: 20 Greatest Hits?

Is that video where they got the image for Street Life: 20 Greatest Hits?

The Street Life cover images came from here:

Roxy Music - Re-Make/Re-Model (Live At The Royal College Of Art)

That semi-live version of "Really Good Time" is such an oddity. Did they also perform it in concert with taped strings?

I do like Country Life, just a notch below the records on either side. My vinyl copy depicted no girls, and I always had to laugh at a cover picture of evergreen branches with "ROXY MUSIC" blazoned across the top.

It's also funny to imagine tuxedo-clad Roxy Music sharing US TV time with Black Oak Arkansas or whoever.

If I didn’t know any better, I’d say “End of the Line” was a Ferry-Eno duet.

slightly OT cuz not Siren but from the same period, Midnight Special is releasing official hi res versions of all their episodes but i don't think they have done this Roxy show yet but this upload looks very good, too bad Wetton never appeared on the studio albums
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Bm-B7N02Qw

lol just realized last youtube embed was from same broadcast, put up the pristine clips Midnight Special dudes!

too bad Wetton never appeared on the studio albums

Wetton is a great bass player, of course, but I will stand up for John Gustafson as the most secret weapon in the Roxy arsenal of the period.

maybe, but neither of them get a mention in ant rap